BSI publishes study on enterprise mobile device security

Report published by German Federal Office for Information Security highlights risks associated with the widesspread use of mobile devices in the enterprise, offers protection strategies

BSI, the German Federal Office for Information Security, has published a report on “Enterprise mobile device security” that provides a comprehensive overview on the current risks associated with the deployment of mobile devices in an enterprise context.

The report, authored by experts of secure mobile phone producer GSMK and published and distributed by BSI’s alliance for cyber security, covers Apple iOS, Google Android and Blackberry devices, taking a hard look at the current generation of hardware and software and the resulting dependencies on a limited number of key suppliers.

The study identifies key risk areas associated with the deployment of mobile devices in an enterprise context, as well as platform-specific issues. It demonstrates that unreflected deployment of mobile devices in an enterprise context implies a number of grave IT security risks, and makes the case for doing so only in the context of a well-defined framework of organizational and technical measures that secure the enterprise against industrial espionage and other kinds of attacks.